Saddle up!
Barrel racers garnered applause from the audience during their final runs during the Moses Lake Roundup last August. More rodeo action is anticipated at the Grant County Fairgrounds over the next two years.
FILE PHOTO
MOSES LAKE — The Washington State High School Rodeo Association finals are coming to the Grant County Fairgrounds in 2024 and 2025, according to incoming association President Chance Gartner.
The state championship will feature high school and junior high school-age riders, Gartner said, and will take place on Memorial Day weekend both years.
“Outgoing President T.J. Washington reached out for a place to do state finals. We needed a facility that could house us, and this seemed like a good facility,” he said.
The event would bring in hundreds of young riders and their families from across the state — just the kind of event the Grant County Fairgrounds is looking to host more of, according to Fairgrounds Director Jim McKiernan.
“We’ve been working for four years trying to get the finals here,” McKiernan said. “In the past, they’ve used three to four different facilities. This gives them the opportunity to do it all in one location.”
McKiernan said as one of the premier equestrian facilities in the state, the Grant County Fairgrounds is looking to host as many youth events as possible, whether they be youth rodeo or youth equestrian shows.
“We want to cater to as many youth events as possible,” he said. “We put on 400- to 500-horse events several times a year and we value having them here. We worked really hard to get them.”
However, in order to sign the Washington State High School Rodeo Association, McKiernan had to preempt the Inland Empire Arabian Horse Association’s annual Memorial Day Classic, making it difficult for the association to stage the event in 2024, according to IEAHA President Carol Rasmussen.
Rasmussen said the association moved from Spokane to Moses Lake in 2021. The show is a major fundraiser for Shriners Children’s Hospital in Spokane, and Rasmussen said it would be difficult to move the event to another weekend or find another venue for next year.
“We’ve never seen a county facility do that,” she said. “We’re terribly disappointed and not sure what can be done.”
Rasmussen said the Arabian horse association asked the high school rodeo association if it could change its event dates, but the association refused. McKiernan said the fairgrounds offered several other dates to the Arabian horse association, but they refused as well.
“We can only hold one large event at a time,” McKiernan said.
“We’ve always had the show Memorial Day weekend,” Rasmussen said. “We were willing to sign a multi-year contract.”
Gartner, who lives with his wife Kacey near Walla Walla, said his family are not strangers to Moses Lake or the Grant County Fairgrounds. He was a champion steer wrestler in high school, Kacey is an award-winning barrel racer, their daughter is in high school rodeo and their son has just started junior high school rodeo. They’ve both ridden in the Grant County rodeo arena and come here regularly to compete.
“My PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) card is officially old enough to drink,” he said.
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.